Today’s technology often creates opportunities for top engineers to design complicated products to simplify life.
Students in Marquette University’s Rehabilitation Engineering class recently completed their semester projects in which they created simple innovations, that made a big difference in the lives of a few local special needs children.
“There were 28 students in the class, eight graduate students and the rest are seniors,” said Barbara Silver-Thorn, associate professor of biomedical engineering. “The students were given the chance to learn about the available assistive technology and the biomedical factors and choose between doing a research paper or the service learning option.”
Marquette’s Service Learning program allows students to perform meaningful community service that relates to their courses. In this case, the biomedical engineering students partnered with the Milwaukee Center for Independence (MCFI), a non-profit community-based organization, which works towards meeting the needs of special needs children and families in the community.
One MU student project for MCFI was a stability chair. It is designed and crafted to look similar to a high chair, but the height of the chair, the level and slant of the activity board, the degree of support from the cushioned back, as well as an adjustable pommel in between the child’s legs could all be pre set and adjusted for each individual child, Silver-Thorn said. The chair has been extremely beneficial for some of the special needs children.
“Some of the children here have special needs pertaining to how they can sit up in a chair,” said Christine Boyce, BSN, CCM, and director of Pediatric Special Care at MCFI.
One child in particular that uses the chair often has trouble supporting the weight of her head on her shoulders, the chair allows her to not have to worry about holding her head up because that support is there, Boyce said.
“It’s just amazing what these students have done,” she said. “I see the children sitting in that chair that (the MU students) created, and it just brings tears to my eyes. They really, really did a fantastic job.”
“Six years ago we worked with Marquette and Dr. Silver-Thorn on a different project that allowed students to transform a wheelchair into a chair capable of safely downhill skiing,” said Dorothy Fare, director of community relations at MCFI. “This year Barbara called me again, and we had already expanded into our school so we were able to come up with four or five different needs the students could meet.”
Half the class decided to participate in the service learning project and divided in to five different teams.
“The students spent the first couple of weeks at the MCFI facility in Milwaukee, getting to know and understanding the needs of each child,” Fare said. “They spent a lot of time with the children, but also the teachers and staff and they also had access to the family, so they could learn about the situation and what needs they could meet to help improve the quality of the child’s life and education.”
The students were required to meet different children’s special needs. The innovations they came up with include an activity board and binder to assist children with autism, a ‘hide and seek board’ to assist a nearly fully blind and deaf student in advancing her learning capabilities, a stability chair that helps children who normally can’t sit straight up on their own the ability to do so, and one group even took on the task of adapting a tricycle so both ‘big’ and ‘little’ kids could enjoy them.
“Many of the projects, though very simple in design, were so creative and so innovative that not only did they save the departments a lot of money, they also influenced those children’s lives and their development on a level that is worth so much more than any monetary value,” Fare said.
According to Mary Stone, special education coordinator at MCFI’s School for Early Development & Achievement (SEDA) many of the products were designed specifically for certain children, but they can easily be used for other children with similar special needs.
“These projects will likely stay with MCFI and SEDA for years to come,” she said. “The students did such a great job on these projects, we were so impressed, and the children just love them. It’s the perfect example of how with a little work, something can be very helpful and innovative without being extremely expensive or complicated.”
